Cardinal Walter Kasper says the German way forward on its “synodal path” has failed. Kasper, who is the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity’s President Emeritus, points to the Second Vatican Council’s path in synodal fellowship. The Church would have a future only if it continued on that path – a path that the German Read more
Pope Francis told a gathering of Jesuit editors that restorationist Catholics, particularly in the United States, are “gagging” the Church’s modernising reforms. Nevertheless, he insisted that there was no turning back. Francis said the refusal to accept the reforms of the Second Vatican Council is the major problem facing the Church today. “In the European Read more
As of Monday, private Masses and Masses said in Latin won’t be as freely available at St Peter’s Basilica as they have been. The Vatican’s Secretariat of State – which deals with the general affairs of the church – has forbidden Masses to be said by a priest by himself at the basilica. It also Read more
The Archbishop of Paris has announced Saint-Merry Pastoral Center, the city’s most progressive Catholic parish is to close on March 1. The announcement has been greeted with disbelief, sadness and anger by the parish community. They launched an online “appeal” to keep the centre open. In the first 48 hours, more than 2,000 people had Read more
Attacks against Pope Francis are “a fight between those who want the church dreamed of by the Second Vatican Council and those who do not want this,” says the Superior General of the Jesuits. Commenting on various issues where the Pope is currently under attack from his critics, Arturo Sosa SJ says there is no Read more
The liturgical reforms that began with pope Pius X and culminated in the Second Vatican Council are irreversible. Pope Francis made this declaration in a speech to Italy’s Centre of Liturgical Action. “We can affirm with certainty and magisterial authority that the liturgical reform is irreversible,” he said. As one commentator noted, ” It’s not every Read more
The Vatican will not demand the ‘capitulation’ of the traditionalist Society of St Pius X, a spokesman for the former says. The secretary of the Ecclesia Dei commission, Archbishop Guido Pozzo, told a French media outlet that the Vatican continues to work for reconciliation with the society. Formal talks between the SSPX and the Congregation Read more
At the beatification of Blessed Pope Paul VI, Pope Francis has urged the Church to be open to new ways. Speaking to 70,000 people at St Peter’s Square on October 19, Francis said Catholics must “not fear the new” and must be open to previously “unexpected paths”. Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, who was made a Read more
Since Pope Francis took office in March, almost everything he has said and done indicates that he is bent on carrying through a thorough reform of the Roman Catholic Church, beginning with the Vatican itself. Scarcely a month after taking office, he created an international group of eight cardinals to advise him on reform of Read more
Who could have imagined what has happened in the last weeks? When I decided, months ago, to resign all of my official duties on the occasion of my 85th birthday, I assumed I would never see fulfilled my dream that — after all the setbacks following the Second Vatican Council — the Catholic church would Read more